A fine WordPress.com site

Beyond Prayer Part 13…Awakening Together

Awakening Together
All awakened ones
throughout space and time,
honored ones, great beings,
who help all to awaken,
together may we realize
wisdom beyond wisdom (page 29)! [1]
~ translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi

Today is the right and perfect day to “awaken.” The perfect day to discover the power within you to live a life of peace, love, and compassion. Wisdom is beyond knowledge and only in the quiet of the inner heart can we find it and allow it to work in our lives for good. It is important to understand that knowledge is simply information that we have gained during our life time at school, at work, at home, and at play—it is not wisdom.

The author of Thoughts without a Thinker, Mark Epstein, M.D., says there are “two essential currents of the life energy: wisdom and compassion. These are the two qualities of the enlightened mind, the two forces that are cultivated with the realization of enlightenment (page 83).”[2] The perfection of wisdom is in you already and by sitting in the silence you can awaken that which is already in you—as you.

We are all sleeping giants waiting to discover our true selves. Through zazen (sitting), prayer, meditation, and mindfulness this awakening can occur. It may only last for a second or it may last for a life time, but it is there ready to be discovered, acknowledged, and used.

Wisdom can help us cope with life, looking within our minds won’t help because wisdom is not “in” the mind. To discover it, regardless of where it is, simply take the time each day to sit in the silence and open yourself to it. When you do you’ll discover that there is enough room within you for the wisdom to appear. Zen Master Dogen writes: Now, the realm of all buddhas is inconceivable. It cannot be reached by consciousness. Much less can those who have no trust, who lack wisdom know it. Only those who have right trust and great capacity can enter this realm (page 148).” [3]

This short sutra recited daily can help you open your self to the wisdom of the universe that is everywhere present, helpful, compassionate, and powerful. Let us awaken together today and “May the force [of wisdom] be with you.” Yoda
In gassho,